Cooking is an essential skill for every functioning adult. Not only does it provide a way to feed yourself on a budget, but it also can let you express yourself through the most tangible art form available; food. Cooking will allow you to simultaneously impress and nourish your guests with enticing flavors and aromas. But before you learn how to cook, you need to learn HOW to cook. You need to understand the basic methods of cooking food that are essential in most recipes. These are the 6 methods of cooking.
Grilling
One of the often-overlooked methods of cooking is grilling. Grilling is a popular method of cooking on some of the world’s best cruises for adults. Cruises often grill their foods because they often offer seafood as the main course, and one of the best ways to prepare seafood is by grilling it. Seafood is not the only thing that tastes good when grilled. Grilling is a classic American method of cooking, and many traditional American dishes are grilled. Grilling leaves burn lines in the meat, which can be a positive or a negative depending on the context. Many people enjoy the charred taste of the burn lines in their meats, but burnt meat has also been linked to multiple degenerative health conditions. Always be wary of this when grilling meat.
Baking
Baking is probably one of the most popular methods of cooking and has been increasing in popularity rapidly. The roots of baking can be traced back thousands of years, as early civilizations built ovens out of hot coals and stones. Since the 1920s, there has been a standard thermal oven in the majority of homes in the United States. These standard ovens that you probably own right now can be used to cook nearly anything. Everything from baked zucchini to flank steak can be cooked in an oven with very little expertise.
Frying
Frying is a method of cooking that is very popular in Asian dishes, due to the low amount of time that it takes to prepare the food. Most fried dishes can be cooked in as little as 15 minutes, making them a great option for time-crunch meals. There are many things that can be cooked quickly by the fry method. Common dishes such as eggs and bacon can be cooked through frying, as well as more complicated dishes such as curry tofu or chicken stirfry, or pad Thai noodles. These are just some of the amazing dishes that are prepared with frying.
Steaming
Another way to prepare food is by steaming it. Steaming is typically used to prepare select vegetables, but can really be used to cultivate more complex dishes one step at a time. Many vegetables do not taste good unless they are steamed. Broccoli is regarded as one of the best examples of this, as it is bitter and hard when raw, but soft and sweet as a steamed product. There are many other types of food that can be steamed as well, such as fish and rice.
Roasting
One of the lesser-known methods of preparing food is by roasting. When a product is roasted, it is generally baked at a much higher heat than is usually involved in baking. This means it can cook faster without losing as much fluid. Roasting can also be accomplished at lower temperatures or over an open fire, but the fluid retention may not be as significant when roasting in these ways.
Poaching
The final method of cooking is poaching. Poaching requires an amount of hot liquid to be heated to a high temperature and then introducing a portion of food to be cooked by the liquid. There are many things that can be poached, but eggs and fruit are the most common.
These are the 6 most common methods of cooking. Methods left off this list were deep-frying as well as microwaving, but they are not considered as fundamental as the rest of the methods of cooking. Learning the methods of cooking is the first step toward learning how to cook.
Leave a Reply